Design and Enterprise in Contemporary China: A New Role for Museums and Heritage

This thesis challenges traditional narratives of museum history by exploring the domains of policy, industrial heritage, urban planning, cultural enterprise, museum exchange and design exhibitions so as to form an understanding of design culture in contemporary China. The thesis argues that these different contextual dimensions, which sit outside the interior concerns of design museums, are important facilitators both for the construction and purpose of these museums and for the wider project of modernising the nation through its embrace of design culture. Beginning with how China’s central and local governments have established a political environment for the development of a new design culture and its design museums, this study traces the ambitious and tireless work of reusing industrial heritage, delivering new cultural infrastructure as well as introducing design museums and exhibitions, which in the era of reform and opening up has been undertaken by enthusiastic and pioneering practitioners (such as policy makers, entrepreneurs, museum professionals, and scholars). This research makes a significant contribution to current global debates concerning China becoming a new creative power in design, following a period of industrial and manufacturing transformation. In particular, it examines the ecosystem of design culture in Shenzhen as an example of the emergence and construction of national design, as the city transformed itself from a so-called ‘cultural desert’ to become UNESCO’s City of Design in 2008.</p

DataSheet_1_Seasonal variability of eddy kinetic energy in the East Australian current region.docx

The East Australian Current (EAC) is an important western boundary current of the South Pacific subtropical Circulation with high mesoscale eddy kinetic energy (EKE). Based on satellite altimeter observations and outputs from the eddy-resolving ocean general circulation model (OGCM) for the Earth Simulator (OFES), the seasonal variability of EKE and its associated dynamic mechanism in the EAC region are studied. High EKE is mainly concentrated in the shear-region between the poleward EAC southern extension and the equatorward EAC recirculation along Australia's east coast, which is confined within the upper ocean (0-300 m). EKE in this area exhibits obvious seasonal variation, strong in austral summer with maximum (465±89 cm² s-²) in February and weak in winter with minimum (334±48 cm² s-²) in August. Energetics analysis from OFES suggests that the seasonal variability of EKE is modulated by the mixed instabilities composed of barotropic and baroclinic instabilities confined within the upper ocean, and barotropic instability (baroclinic instability) is the main energy source of EKE in austral summer (winter). The barotropic process is mainly controlled by the zonal shear of meridional velocities of the EAC southern extension and the EAC recirculation. The poleward EAC southern extension and the equatorward EAC recirculation are synchronously strengthened (weakened) due to the local positive (negative) sea level anomalies (SLA) under geostrophic equilibrium, and the barotropic instability dominated by zonal shear is enhanced (slackened), which results in a high (low) level of EKE in the EAC region.</p

DataSheet_1_Analysis of the response regulatory network of pepper genes under hydrogen peroxide stress.zip

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a regulatory component related to plant signal transduction. To better understand the genome-wide gene expression response to H2O2 stress in pepper plants, a regulatory network of H2O2 stress-gene expression in pepper leaves and roots was constructed in the present study. We collected the normal tissues of leaves and roots of pepper plants after 40 days of H2O2 treatment and obtained the RNA-seq data of leaves and roots exposed to H2O2 for 0.5–24 h. By comparing the gene responses of pepper leaves and roots exposed to H2O2 stress for different time periods, we found that the response in roots reached the peak at 3 h, whereas the response in leaves reached the peak at 24 h after treatment, and the response degree in the roots was higher than that in the leaves. We used all datasets for K-means analysis and network analysis identified the clusters related to stress response and related genes. In addition, CaEBS1, CaRAP2, and CabHLH029 were identified through a co-expression analysis and were found to be strongly related to several reactive oxygen species-scavenging enzyme genes; their homologous genes in Arabidopsis showed important functions in response to hypoxia or iron uptake. This study provides a theoretical basis for determining the dynamic response process of pepper plants to H2O2 stress in leaves and roots, as well as for determining the critical time and the molecular mechanism of H2O2 stress response in leaves and roots. The candidate transcription factors identified in this study can be used as a reference for further experimental verification.</p

Table_1_Integrated analysis of multi-omics and fine-mapping reveals a candidate gene regulating pericarp color and flavonoids accumulation in wax gourd (Benincasa hispida).docx

Wax gourd (Benincasa hispida), a popular fruit of the Cucurbitaceae (cucurbits) family, contains many nutrients with health benefits and is widely grown in China and other tropical areas. In this study, a wax gourd mutant hfc12 with light-color pericarp was obtained through ethane methylsulfonate (EMS) mutagenesis. Integrative analysis of the metabolome and transcriptome identified 31 differentially accumulated flavonoids (DAFs; flavonoids or flavonoid glycosides) and 828 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the hfc12 mutant and wild-type ‘BWT’. Furthermore, BSA-seq and kompetitive allele specific PCR (KASP) analysis suggested that the light-color pericarp and higher flavonoid content was controlled by a single gene BhiPRR6 (Bhi12M000742), a typical two-component system (TCS) pseudo-response regulator (PRR). Genetic analysis detected only one nonsynonymous mutation (C-T) in the second exon region of the BhiPRR6. Weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) identified the downstream target genes of BhiPRR6, probably regulated by light and were intermediated in the regulatory enzyme reaction of flavonoid biosynthetic pathway. Thus, these results speculated that the transcription factor BhiPRR6, interacting with multiple genes, regulates the absorption of light signals and thereby changes the pericarp color and synthesis of flavonoids in wax gourd.</p